SSD SHOOTOUT:
OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD
versus others

We received a sample late today of the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD. We used QuickBench from the Speed Tools Test Suite to sample the small random reads/writes (average of 4K to 1024K blocks - 5 cycles each) and large sequential read/writes (20M to 100M blocks - 5 cycles each). We compared it to four other solid state drives (SSDs) along with one of the fastest hard disk drives (HDDs).

CONCLUSIONThe OWC 6G SSD is the fastest SSD we have tested to date. Based on the SandForce SF-2200 chipset with built-in wear leveling and error correction code along with over-provisioning, it's an excellent performance upgrade to any of the 2011 MacBook Pros (all of which have the 6Gb/s interface.)

For more info on the OWC Mercury Extreme Pro 6G SSD, go to the Other World Computing website. Though our sample was of 120GB capacity, this model is also available in 240GB and 480GB capacities.

MAC PRO NOTES
We've started testing the OWC 6G SSD on the Mac Pro 6-core. To get the 500+ MB/s speed, you'll have to bypass the internal 3Gb/s controller. That can be done using 6Gb/s host adapters. One example is the ATTO ExpressSAS R644. Using it, we achieved 498MB/s READ and 513MB/s WRITE. Stay tuned for a full report.

OTHER TEST SITES
The MacPerformanceGuide posted their test of the OWC 6G SSD using Disktester's Fill Volume.

WHERE TO BUY A MACBOOK PRO or other Apple productsClick on our Apple Store USA text links or display ads when you order. It is a great way to support Bare Feats since we earn a commission on each click-through that results in a sale.